Small Business Saturday

Small Business Saturday is right up my alley. Check out their facebook page. I say shop small, local businesses year round! :)

Pecans at Thanksgiving

Fifteen years ago Hurricane Fran destroyed one of my grandfather's mature pecan trees but not before a seedling had taken root in one of my grandmother's flower pots. My brother rescued the seedling when it was only 12-15 inches tall and planted it on the farm. Here's that tree now.

Producing pecans? You better believe it! Yielded a couple of buckets full. Looks like our Thanksgiving tradition of picking up pecans after lunch lives on!

Dem Apples



Ok...there's apples...

Then, there's NC Pink Lady.

It's really hard to find a bad apple at this time of year. The first apple pictured above is a Gala from the local grocery store. While it is really good, it just doesn't compare to the Pink Lady from the NC farmers market. I challenge you to do a taste test at home. You will be sold! Nothing quite like dem NC apples.

Subtle Change 11

I highly recommend family dinner time together. It is a very important, and most favorite, time of day for me. Eating together keeps us close, as we use this time to turn off TV and talk about our day. We keep it real, laugh, have light-hearted conversation, and even at times serious conversation. We have had our fair share of spills and moments we will never forget at our dinner table. According to fancy, shmancy researchers family dinners promote healthier eating habits, but's that only true if the effort is made to have nutritious foods served. If you don't have family dinners, you are really missing out. I challenge to you to make this a subtle change. Begin with a few nights a week. Even if you're too busy to cook, bring home take-out. That counts, too, as Thursday night has become our Mexican take-out night. I would love to hear your comments about your experiences with family dinners. :)